Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and Director of the Institute for Social Research
Ph.D. Wayne State University
Area: Social

Contact Information

Email: jamessj@umich.edu
Psychology Office: Office of the Director, 426 Thompson Street
Psychology Phone: 734-763-2491

Alternate Office: 3002 East Hall
Alternate Phone: 734-763-1097

Research and Teaching Interests

James S. Jackson is the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, and Director of the Institute for Social Research, all at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on issues of racial and ethnic influences on life course development, attitude change, reciprocity, social support, and coping and health among blacks in the Diaspora. He is past Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies and past national president of the Black Students Psychological Association and Association of Black Psychologists. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Contributions to Research Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, American Psychological Association, and recently received the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for Distinguished Career Contributions in Applied Psychology from the Association for Psychological Sciences. He is an elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.

He is currently directing the most extensive social, political behavior, and mental and physical health surveys on the African American and Black Caribbean populations ever conducted, “The National Survey of American Life” and the “The Family Survey across Generations and Nations”, and the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Corporation supported “National Study of Ethnic Pluralism and Politics”. Recent publications include "African Americans in a Diversifying Nation," and "Age cohort, ancestry, and immigration status influences on family relations and psychological well-being among three generation Caribbean black families”. Journal of Social Issues, 63 (4), 729-743, 2007. He serves on several Boards for the National Research Council and the National Academies of Science and is a founding member of the new “Aging Society Research Network” of the MacArthur Foundation.

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